Tilt trailers are typically tiltable between a generally level bed, transport disposition for transporting a vehicle or other load disposed on the bed and a tilted load/unload disposition in which the bed is tilted with respect to a trailer frame and wherein a wheeled load, such as a vehicle, may be rolled onto or off of the bed at the rear of the trailer. There is a need in the industry for underride protection for tilt trailers when the trailers are in the transport disposition. Such underride protection disposed at the rear of the trailer is needed to prevent a vehicle that collides with the rear of the tilt trailer from underriding the trailer. In such a collision without underride protection, the colliding vehicle may slide under the trailer bed and the rear of the trailer bed may then impact the passenger compartment of the colliding vehicle, thereby causing injury to the occupants of the colliding vehicle. With underride protection, the front of the impacting vehicle remains in the proximity of the rear of the trailer, sparing the occupants from injury caused by intrusion of the rear of the trailer into the passenger compartment.
Underride protection in non-tiltable, fixed-bed trailers has long been provided, typically by a frame made of angle iron that depends from the rear of the bed of the trailer. Such protection is commonly seen on semi-type trailers. Such underride protection in non-tiltable trailers is typically permanently fixed in place.
A difficulty for tilt trailers is that any underride protection provided in the transport disposition must be withdrawn in some manner in order to provide for the tilting of the trailer bed in the load/unload disposition where the rear of the bed is in close proximity to the surface of the ground underlying the trailer. A fixed underride protection frame, such as provided on the aforementioned non-tiltable trailers, would prevent such tilting by coming into contact with the ground surface. Accordingly, there is a need of the industry for an underride protection for tilt trailers that is automatically deployed to provide underride protection when the trailer is in the transport disposition and is automatically retracted to permit tilting of the trailer bed as the trailer bed transitions from the transport disposition to the load/unload disposition.
Tilt trailers are typically lower to the ground in the transport disposition than semi-type trailers. This leads to a further difficulty for tilt trailers in that a depending underride protection (ramp) may drag on the ground surface over which the vehicle is passing, especially in rough or uneven areas. This puts an unwanted strain on the underride protector and may, in fact, seriously damage the underride protection. There is a need of the industry for an underride protector that is substantially insulated from such damage.